The Journal of Corporal Militis
by xxShiftyxx
Summary: This is the journal of Corporal Preliat Militis, Storm Trooper of the Terra 75th.
1. Chapter 1

The Journal of Corporal Militis, 1st Platoon, Echo Company, 75th Terra Storm Troopers W11357

Why was I assigned to this regiment? Why was I selected to be in such an elite unit? They don't respect me. I don't much like the way the others in the regiment looked down on me, either. I'm one of the highest scoring soldiers in the regiment in terms of shooting _and _physical fitness. Plus, I'm a Non-Commissioned Officer. I outrank the men who enjoyed mocking me. Well, all of that came to a grinding halt on the day of our first battle together…

"Fuck you, you brat!" Trooper First Class Shobar yelled. Apparently he had a problem with my orders. "If you want to stick your head out in that mess, be my guest, but I refuse." My blood boiled, but I could see why he was so unhappy about my orders. A sniper had taken off Debray's head, poor bastard, and almost immediately after, withering las fire was ripping the wall apart, chunk by Emperor damned chunk. It was near suicide to comply with my orders. But disobeying them would mean certain death at the hands of the Commissariat for all of us. We were expected to move in further and bring down a generator building that was powering the enemy's artillery. Failure would be frowned upon with eyes shaped like las-gun muzzles.

"Fine, you damn coward." I replied, shouldering past him. "I'll do it my damned self!" I grabbed a grenade from my belt, a fragmentation grenade, great against infantry, but wretched on vehicles. Good thing they didn't have any. I poked my head around the edge of the once beautiful Imperial cathedral. The once ornately decorated walls had been pummeled nearly smooth by withering fire and detonation from nearby shells. All across the streets were the scattered, smashed remains of the statues of Imperial heroes and Saints long gone and dearly missed. It nearly broke my heart seeing such powerful religious artifacts destroyed without care.

I lobbed the grenade as hard as I could and then returned to taking cover behind the slowly shrinking wall. After the thud, the enemy fire died down a bit. With all the breath in my lungs I shouted "For the Emperor!" and flew out of my covered position and sprinted towards the enemy's line. My hellgun spat death at every foe who had enough of him exposed for me to hit. By the time the sniper had the drop on me, I had it on him. As I was about to squeeze the trigger, praying to the God-Emperor that I killed him first, a bright blue lance of energy destroyed the area where the sniper had been. Rather than foolishly look back, I kept moving and firing, knowing that my squad had actually grown a pair, not wanting the regiment's baby to show them all up by myself. I had them on my side now. Perhaps they would go all the way with me.

We pushed through the enemy so fast and hard that day that plans for retaking the Hive city were accelerated. We had forced our way into the generator building and accidentally blown the wrong cufflink. We ran as fast as we could and watched as an explosion of near nuclear proportions obliterated the enemy artillery and a flying shard of metal nearly impaled me through my face. The rubble strewn streets, ruined buildings and corpses were all that was left of the great hive, before and after we pushed through. We had just made a big hole in the middle of it all. It had been a great victory. My great victory, and I knew that, from that day forward, no one in the regiment would disrespect me so completely again. The jokes were inevitable, I knew, but I had showed what I could do, and my men were impressed.

_Corporal Preliat Militis_

_3rd Squad, 1st Platoon_

_Echo Company, 75th Terra Storm Troopers_


	2. Chapter 2

The Journal of Corporal Militis, 1st Platoon, Echo Company, 75th Terra Storm Troopers W11357

7 is not a very large number. I had never thought in single digits since joining my home planet's version of the Cadian White Shields, the Steel Hammers. Anything that had to do with numbers in the Guard had a lot of zeroes at the end of it. 7 was such a small number before.

Not right now, though. It had been only about, well, I'd say three hours since we had regrouped with the rest of the regiment. Actually, that was how long ago they had caught up with us; I'm not too modest to state. In that time, my men, minus poor Debray had managed to scrounge up some hot chow. I, however, was called into a briefing by our company commander, a meeting usually reserved for the platoon leaders.

I crept into the hastily assembled TOC, stepping respectfully out of the way as several sergeants moved about the tent. I humbly took my place behind the junior officer cadre until Captain Marks stepped into the room, looking around for a moment. His gaze met mine and a determined look played into his face.

"Militis, move up to the front." The commander ordered. "This plan involves you and your lot more than anyone else."

"Sir!" I scooted forward, apologizing to one of the sergeants after bumping into him. I stepped on a lieutenant's foot, but Captain Marks began speaking before I could apologize. Not that I was overly bothered with offending a lieutenant. He had never been through Basic Training, instead going straight through the Officer Candidate Scholum on Terra. An accomplishment to be sure, but I think everyone else in the room, save one of the other lieutenants was much more experienced than him.

"Very good. Now then, first, good job today lads. The blood of over one hundred Chaos scumbags wets the ground here, and only six brothers to mourn from the entire regiment." The captain paused as the room gave a quiet clap against their chests, in respect to the fallen. "Militis, extra congratulations are to you and your squad. You really pulled off the big kill."

"To be honest, sir, it was a land-nav mistake." I stated. "We were off on our coordinates by one digit and ended up right in there laps." The tent broke into a light chuckle and I couldn't help but smirk. Captain Marks smiled and waved a hand for the room to be silent now.

"A charming tail, Corporal. Now then, there is no mistaking it, thanks to the Corporal's 'blunder' we are farther ahead of schedule then we imagined ourselves being only two days into the assault. With the help of one of the recon regiments we have ascertained that there are seven Chaos ass-wipes of sizeable importance located here, here, here and here." The captain pointed to the locations of the heretic leaders on a holomap, with several red blips which mapped out enemy defense emplacements. "We don't know which building holds whom, but we do know that they are all in this area. Our company has been tasked with taking the northeastern building, an old mineral refining plant. Any miners here?" A few hands went up and Captain Marks nodded. "I'll be counting on your advice while we're planning the insertion. Typical layouts and the like. So, any questions?"

I raised my hand quickly, staring hard at the holomap. "Sir, those defenses posted around the buildings, just there. What exactly can we expect?"

"Ah, aerial pictographs show, mostly heretics pocketed behind cover. Maybe a few heavy guns and some light armor. Most of their heavy armor was in their counter push, which ended up getting caught in the explosion of the reactors. The only sizeable threat they now have is a corrupted Warhound, which we have lost track of."

"You said what now, sir?" Sergeant Dane asked. "I'm sorry, it sounded like you said those shiprats upstairs lost sight of a damned Titan."

"Correct, Sergeant, the Navy frecked us real bad today. The Tactical Officers of the command staff have assured us that if the Titan is still in fighting shape, it will be moving south, towards our armor elements. They'll be throwing everything they've got at those two Baneblades moving up their sorry asses." I let out a sigh of relief hearing that. To have to fight a Titan, even the smallest one the Chaos could possibly throw at us, was a daunting task. That would be like fist fighting naked against a Terminator with Lightening Claws. "Well, everyone except for my miners, your released for now. Meet back here in two hours so that I may brief you on the course of action to be taken against the refinery."

I walked out of the briefing room and wondered how the frecking hell that briefing involved me at all, other than for Captain Marks to congratulate me and have me extend that to the squad. Maybe the full extent of the plan, and our involvement would reveal itself when we went back for the rest of the briefing.

_Corporal Preliat Militis_

_3__rd__ Squad, 1__st__ Platoon_

_Echo Company, 75__th__ Terra Storm Troopers_

_We are the men of Terra's Own, you've grown to know and fear._

_We take our silver daggers and we cut you, ear from ear._

_Our hellguns bark and las-guns burn and cut down the hated foe._

_We are the men of Terra's own and defeat we shall not know!_


	3. Chapter 3

The Journal of Corporal Militis, 1st Platoon, Echo Company, 75th Terra Storm Troopers W11357

"Shit." I muttered, after telling my squad the plan. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shitty shit, shit."

"Don't worry about it, Corpse." Trooper Vrell said, reassuringly. The squad had taken to calling me Cropse, both as a pet name for my rank and because if I pulled too many stunts like the one on that first day, that is exactly what I would turn into. A Corpse. "It's not like you volunteered us for this part of the plan."

"No, but because of our display with the reactors, everyone in this assault has heard about the 'Twelve year old Corporal and his band of gods destroying half of the enemy's fighting strength with one well placed grenade.'" The squad chuckled, especially hearing about how men from other regiments thought I was too young to be in the guard, too. "Ah, shut up, the lot of you. Anyways, thanks to us performing too well that day, we've been voluntold to get this job done."

"More glory for the twelve year old and his gods." Trooper Tre said, raising a fist into the air. The group burst into laughter and I couldn't help but join in. "So, are we the only ones going into the refinery, Corpse?"

"No, we're the only ones being dropped in via Valkyrie, though." They all knew that meant we were going to be the only target in the sky, unless we had some sort of escort, and we were going to be the only ten Imperial soldiers inside of a Chaos held building for several hours. "If anyone doesn't want to go, you're still going, but you can get it off your chest and I won't make fun of you… to your face." Smirks broke out across their faces, and now that they all knew what was coming, I decided to have them hit the sack early. "Get some rest, now. No card games, no late night lho-sticks, get some sleep. You'll need it."

* * * *

Day break was usually a serene time, no matter what planet you were on. It was a time for everyone to brush the fatigue away and get about their business. Today, it was different, though. I looked at my chronometer and sighed heavily. Ten minutes and we would be loading into the Valkyrie. The number seven kept popping up into my head. Seven of these bastards were scattered in these buildings and it was up to us to slay at least one of them. He was no doubt well protected. If the enemy could throw their foul version of our Titans at us, I had no doubt in my mind that they would have Traitor Marines with them. We had been issued hot-shot ammunition long ago, and we were assured that it could punch through a Space Marine's armor, even at its strongest points, but we all had our doubts. It was a risky endeavor to ever engage a Space Marine, no matter the distance or if you were in a tank of any sort.

"Alright, buckets on." I ordered. The men complained a bit but they slid their helmets on and clipped the face masks securely to the helmet. The Valkyrie's pilots lazily walked towards us, one of them with a half smoked lho-stick in his mouth and the other talking passionately about some hot topic, swinging his arms out as if that would help the dismissive co-pilot grasp the scale of what he was saying. "Hurry up!" I barked. Probably taking me for someone higher in rank then a mere Corporal, the two pilots, who had to be at least warrant officers to hold that position, ran quickly, the one with the lho-stick taking one last, heavy drag and then tossed the butt to side.

"Alright let's…" one of the pilots began, and then caught a glimpse of the two chevrons on my sleeve, indicating I was a corporal and gave me an angry look. I caught a glimpse of the silver bar on his shoulder, indicating he was a first lieutenant. Apparently he wasn't happy with me ordering him to get his ass in gear. Oh well. "Let's get on board, _Corporal_."

I nodded to the squad and they hopped on board and started talking about some pre-battle topic to keep their mind off of it. I wasn't really paying attention to what was being said. I only caught something to the effect of '_Yeah, she did have a nice body.'_ I rolled my eyes and hopped onto the Valkyrie behind them all, banging my fist against the hatch to let the pilots know we were ready to go.

The flier lifted off of the ground with a lot of puffing and moaning and sped towards the inner city, apportion completely owned by what was left of the Chaos Resistance. A red light blinked on and the ramp closed itself. I clicked the vox in my ear, connecting to the pilots.

"What's the deal?" I asked.

"Enemy ground personnel." One of them replied. "We're getting some fire from the defenses down below, but they don't have anything in the AA department, so we'll be alright."

I nodded and gave the squad a thumbs up, letting them know we were alright. Several minutes of flying was brutally long. It was almost painful, the anticipation I was feeling. Soon enough, though, the red light turned green and the ramp closed. I looked outside and I could see muzzle flash, but they were coming from weapons that weren't designed to take down air craft. I looked back at the squad and waved my hands towards me, indicating the two with the ropes lower them. Shaz, the squad's plasma gunner, tossed down a length of rope, as did the squad's sniper Terrag. I grabbed Terrag's rope and slid in first, with Shaz. We repelled down about three stories, until we could see a room big enough for the whole squad to fit in. I pushed off of the glass window, swung out and then swung right back, shattering through the glass and bringing my hellgun up. Shaz was right behind me and we held our position until the whole squad was inside. I looked out the window and signaled for the Valkyrie to move on. The pilot nodded, doing something with his hand that was obviously supposed to be an obscene gesture and turned the flier about.

I was already turning when I caught a glimpse of a small dark object, with a smoking tail behind it heading for the Valkyrie form the roof. I wanted to yell out to them, but I bit my tongue. If I said anything, they'd pin point our location and we'd be up to our necks in Chaos before we got anywhere near our target, where ever he may be. The rear of the Valkyrie erupted in a ball of flame and it started to spin through the air as it slowly fell to the ground. I looked over at the squad, but they weren't moved by what had happened. There was no time for any of us to show pity, we had a job of the utmost importance to get done.

I stood against the wall, just inches from the door way that lead to the north of the building. Shaz fell in right behind me, followed by Corrick and Shobar. The rest of the squad took cover, waiting for us to breach the door. I sent my left hand back, tapping on the thigh of Shaz, who did the same all the way back until I felt Shaz tap me on the shoulder, indicating everyone was in place. Shobar came up from the rear and we both swept our hands along the door, making sure there were no booby traps and then he kicked the door in. I ran in, shooting a heretic through the torso in the center of the room and then moved to the left. Shaz blaster another heretic right out of the window behind him and moved to the right, with Corick spraying two closely clumped heretics who were running in from another room. Shobar came in and took cover a few feet behind Shaz and we all covered the two doorways leading into the room. The six others moved in, checked the room the two heretics had come in from and then stacked on the door on the opposite wall. If we had to clear the whole building like this, it would be a long day, and our squad would have a big body count by the end of it.

_Corporal Preliat Militis_

_3rd Squad, 1st Platoon_

_Echo Company, 75th Terra Storm Troopers_

_The wrath of the Emperor is to be feared, not because he is the God of Mankind, but because it's our regiment that will see it is carried out!_


End file.
